With 1,300 supermarkets under his purview, Yakov Yarmove is one of America’s most influential executives in the kosher segment of the retail food business. As the kosher buyer for the SUPERVALU chain, his decisions heavily impact the kosher market, and make sure kosher products are available in the far-flung corners of the US — a change from the days when he was a kid and for years drank only powdered milk.

Thirty years ago people expected Ponevezh protégé Rav Moshe Goldstein to become a rosh yeshivah. They just didn’t think it would be that kind of yeshivah. But Sha’arei Yosher didn’t disappoint him or his mentor, Rav Shach, and three decades later Rav Goldstein is still fresh and inspired — but with one stipulation for the changing times, to insure he has open hearts to work with: mind-numbing Smartphones are banned. Because if you’re plugged in, you’re out.

When the government is sunk in debt, can we expect families to do better? Yes, according to rabbis and educators who are devising courses in financial literacy for the next generation of family heads, our high school students. But do such courses really help, or is the flood of consumerism and easy credit too strong to overcome?

Passersby looked on curiously as a procession of tallis-draped Torah scrolls was carried down 16th Street off Union Square in Manhattan. This was no joyous occasion, but more like a funeral march, following an eviction notice after a years-long court battle over property rights to the iconic 16th Street Shul. A sad end to a brave fight … or is it?